Friends of the Morden Mine

Events & Meetings

Historic Walking Tour | Meeting Dates and Location | Fundraising Events

Historic Walking Tour

Tom Paterson to Lead Fall 2008 "Black Track" Tour

On Saturday, September 20, Tom Paterson, well-known historian, newspaper columnist and raconteur, will lead another of his very popular "Black Track" walking tours. "Black Track" refers to those South Wellington area railway lines informally used by miners and residents as a "public thoroughfare" or walking track. Coal dust so thickly coated the lines that they became known locally as the "Black Track."

Proceeds of ticket sales will again go to support Friends of the Morden Mine Society in their endeavour to bring about the preservation of Morden Colliery's splendid but rapidly deteriorating 1913 headframe and tipple, innovative at the time in their use of reinforced concrete, and the only such remaining above-ground structures on Vancouver Island, in fact in North America. Tom, as usual, is donating his time and his fund of historical mining stories.

The tour will start at 10:00 a.m. at Morden Colliery Historic Provincial Park and will concentrate much of its time in exploring South Wellington area mining sites and former railway lines. The tour will probably last five or six hours, and requires reasonable fitness. Participants should bring a packed lunch, water or juice , and sunscreen. Hats and reasonably protective clothing are also recommended.

The complete itinerary will be available on the website when tickets go on sale Monday, August 18. E-mail cchristo@shaw.ca or phone 714-0377 at that time for reservations. Or e-mail or phone now if you wish to be put on a list of those to be reminded of first day of ticket sales. Tickets will undoubtedly be in great demand, judging from previous tours.

Click here to view previous announcements.

Tom Paterson's Spring "Black Track" Tour, May 4, 2008, a report by Judy Burgess.

An excited group assembled at the Morden mine site at 10.00 a.m. on Sunday May 4th. As individuals arrived, they were informed of an addition to the day's Black Track tour program. MLA Ron Cantelon would be presenting the Friends of the Morden Mine Society (or "FOMM") with a most welcome cheque!

All gathered in the sunshine beside Morden's long neglected structures, and heard Mr. Cantelon suggest that next time John Hofman, the Society's Vice President, came looking for a cheque, he would no doubt be expecting to see more zeroes on it! The assembled audience applauded this idea very enthusiastically! (The $4000 presented on this occasion will help fund a vital site plan for the whole ten-acre Provincial Park Historic Site on which the mine-site remains are to be found.)

Much cheered by this encouraging news, Judy Burgess, President of FOMM, outlined the history of the Company (the Pacific Coast Coal Mine Company Ltd. or "P.C.C.M.") that was responsible for the unique construction of Morden, using the fledgling technology, at that time, of reinforcing concrete with steel rebar.

She explained that although this use of reinforced concrete for Morden’s historic style of head frame is probably unique in North America, the structures made from the concrete were typical of the design for shaft mines of the time. The concrete has, therefore, preserved for us the style of historic structures usually made of less durable wood or steel. The function of these various still very complete structures was then explained, before the group walked behind the headframe and tipple, and into the trees, to find the impressive arch, inscribed "P.C.C.M", that had once supported two 60 foot high, 66 inch across, chimney stacks. Smoke from three coal-fired boilers had once poured from them.

Viewing the remains and hearing more details, from Tom, about the main hoist house and vent shaft on the way, the group returned to the car park, where they received directions to cross back over the main highway and drive through the community of South Wellington, to meet at the site of Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir)’s No. 5 mine.

This mine was opened up in 1917, just as the P.C.C.M.’s first South Wellington mine was closing down, so, for a brief time, there was plenty of work for South Wellington men, as more miners were also needed for Morden’s expansion. Tom Paterson, after explaining where the mine would have been located, and showing historic photographs of the mine, described the working conditions that miners had to endure, interlaced with his characteristic and fascinating anecdotes about historic incidents in the lives of South Wellington residents. Many tour participants were familiar with Tom’s columns in local newspapers and his many books on local history, so were just enchanted to hear Tom draw from his amazing fund of local knowledge to tell his stories directly to them.

On the way to the first P.C.C.M. mine, Judy explained that mainly miner-settlers, or their descendants, had owned both the coal bearing lands for the P.C.C.M.’s first mine and for Morden (which was the company's third mine). Several more such settlers had owned all the land over which the Company's railway to Boat Harbour had run. The Company had made individual agreements with the male "heads" of all these settler families, except in the very important first case, that of Elizabeth Fiddick, where she owned the property by inheritance from her brother and also in the case of Mary Ann Rowe, who had inherited her property from her first husband.

On reaching the ruins, Tom described the terrible flooding tragedy that had taken place at this mine, and which took the lives of nineteen South Wellington men, many of whom had been members of the town’s band. This band had played an important role during the strike of 1913-14, by playing for community dances, so helping to keep spirits up and the community more united.

After a drive back through the Village and through the “Morden Town Site”, where, in 1912, tiny lots had been created for sale to miners, the group came to Fiddick’s Junction. Here the P.C.C.M. had excavated their rail tunnel, underneath the E.&N. Although legal action confirmed the right of the CPR to deny access to a surface crossing of their E.&N. line, they had no right to prevent the P.C.C.M. excavating underneath it! Although the tunnel itself was long ago filled in, the route of the below grade PCCM rail line, leading from where the tunnel used to emerge, can still be seen, now a site for ferns and other native plants, as well, unfortunately, for some dumped rubbish.

From here, after a short walk, the site of Canadian Collieries’ No. 10 mine was reached. A steep climb up to the top of the slack heap and a wonderful view over the surrounding countryside could be enjoyed, while listening to more of Tom’s marvelous stories. Time, as usual, was rapidly running out, so the group hurried back to drive to the Cranberry Firehall, where the biennial South Wellington Day was in full swing. Cars lined all roadways, but the group still received a warm welcome from the generous townspeople. Here past and long time residents of the town could be talked to, and history learned at first hand, supplemented by a great collection of historical photos, including the Friends of the Morden Mine’s own display, the photos of which were tracked down mainly by Judy, who started researching P.C.C.M. history back in 1999.

Tour participants enthusiastically gave thanks to Tom, and arrangements were made for possible future meetings. So ended another very successful Black Track tour, all profits of which go to FOMM, to support the Society’s on-going efforts to save Morden’s structures. The accelerating rate of deterioration of Morden’s unique structures will certainly lead to their eventual collapse, unless vital repairs and restoration can be undertaken in the near future.

Annual General Meeting, Thursday, October 16, 2008, 7:00 p.m., Cedar Heritage Centre

Members and the public are invited to attend Friends of Morden Mine Society’s annual general meeting for 2008. This is an important overview of society happenings in 2008 and of strategy planned for 2009 as our society readies to launch a major fundraising campaign for Morden’s preservation. Directors welcome input as to how best to carry out this crucial task. Guest speaker to be announced. Refreshments.

Judy Burgess, one of Friends of Morden Mine’s founding members, and president since the society’s inception in 2003, is bowing out at the end of her 2007 to 2008 term. As a number of you know, in 2006 she moved to Tahsis, B.C. and finds it increasingly difficult as well as expensive to attend meetings. We hope you will join us at the AGM in thanking her for her dedication to Morden’s preservation and her extremely hard work towards this goal.

For a summary of the 2007 AGM activate this link.

Directors' Meetings

Directors’ meetings are held on the first Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m., Cedar Heritage Centre, 1644 MacMillan Road, Cedar, B.C. Members and non-members are welcome. There will be no regular meetings in July and August. Fall meetings are scheduled for September 3, October 1, November 5 and December 3. The Annual General Meeting will take place on Thursday, October 16, 7:00 p.m., at Cedar Heritage Centre.

Cedar Heritage Centre is a few feet from the junction of Walsh and MacMillan Roads, adjacent to Cedar Community Secondary School parking lot. For Google map of location, click on the following link. Positioning of the Google arrow is approximate only and appears a hundred feet or so before the actual site of the Centre.

Fundraising and Other Events

Since 2003, when Friends of Morden Mine became a society, several Miners' Picnics have been held at the Morden site.

In 2006, two very successful fundraising events were held: a Beer and Burger Night at the historic Wheatsheaf Inn in Cedar, and a benefit concert by award-winning blues musician David Gogo.

David's family has deep roots in the local coal mining community. His great grandfather was killed when a local coal mine suddenly flooded in 1915. He has written a song to commemorate that terrible tragedy called, "She's Breakin' Through. " When he perfomed it at his 2006 benefit, the audience was moved to tears. "She's Breakin' Through," nominated for a Juno award in 2007. is on David Gogo's cd "Acoustic."